Adobe alternatives?

I can't offer an alternative to Photoshop. Others have suggested Elements and I believe it now has layers. But as a Photoshop user you are probably used to all those nice little features like the healing brush that may or may not be found in other products.

I can offer you an alternative to Bridge. I use Photoshop and I've never been a fan of Bridge. I use FastStone Image Viewer for managing my photos. I can't list all the little features it has for making my life easier because it would take too long. But among the essentials: it can be configured quite easily to automate the downloading of photos from your camera while renaming the photos and placing them in folders. You can create lists of favourite folders to navigate quickly between them or copy or move images between them. Double-click on any image to get a full screen view of it, use your mouse's wheel to zoom in our out. The imiage's Exif information is a keystroke away, as is the histogram. A single keystroke will bring up your image editor with the selected photo already loaded. Comparing two or more images in a full screen mode is extremely easy. It also has some basic image editing functions and can be used to resize or convert images. And it also interfaces with your scanner and your email.

Finally, it's free. You are invited to make a donation to contribute to further development, but it's not required.... and no, I am not associated with the product in any way except as a user.